Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SAP-ID'I-TY, or SAP'ID-NESS, a.

Taste; tastefulness; savor; the quality of affecting the organs of taste; as, the sapidness of water or fruit. Boyle.

SA'PI-ENCE, n. [Fr. from L. sapientia, from sapio, to taste, to know.]

Wisdom; sageness; knowledge. Still has gratitude and sapience / To spare the folks that give him ha'pence. Swift.

SA'PI-ENT, a.

Wise; sage; discerning. There the sapient king held dalliance. Milton.

SA-PI-EN'TIAL, a.

Affording wisdom or instructions for wisdom. [Not much used.] Bp. Richardson.

SA'PI-ENT-LY, adv.

Wisely; sagaciously.

SAP'LESS, a. [from sap.]

1. Destitute of sap; as, a sapless tree or branch. Swift. Shak.
2. Dry; old; husky; as, a sapless usurer. Dryden.

SAP'LING, n. [from sap.]

A young tree. Nurse the saplings tall. Milton.

SAP-O-NA'CEOUS, a. [from L. sapo, soap.]

Soapy; resembling soap; having the qualities of soap. Saponaceous bodies are compounds of an acid and a base, and are in reality a kind of salt.

SAP'O-NA-RY, a.

Saponaceous.

SA-PON-IF-IC-A'TION, n.

Conversion into soap.

SA-PON'I-FI-ED, pp.

Converted into soap.

SA-PON-I-FY, v.t. [L. sapo, soap, and facio, to make.]

To convert into soap. Ure.

SAP'O-NIN, n.

A peculiar substance from the root of Saponaria officinalis. It is the cause of the lather which the root forms with water. Brande.

SAP'O-NULE, n.

An imperfect soap formed by the action of an alkali upon an essential oil.

SA'POR, n. [L.]

Taste; savor; relish; the power of affecting the organs of taste. There is some sapor in all aliments. Brown.

SAP-OR-IF'IC, n. [Fr. saporifique; from L. sapor and facio, to make.]

Having the power to produce taste; producing taste. Bailey. Johnson.

SAP-OR-OS'I-TY, n.

The quality of a body by which it excites the sensation of taste.

SAP-OR'OUS, a.

Having taste; yielding some kind of taste. Bailey.

SA-PO'TA, n.

In botany, the specific name of a tree or plant of the genus Achras.

SAP-PA-DIL'LO-TREE, or SAP-A-DIL'LO-TREE, n.

The popular name of a tree of the genus Sloanea. Fam. of Plants. Lee.

SAP'PARE, n.

A mineral or species of earth, the kyanite; called by Haüy, disthene. Ure.

SAP'PED, pp.

Undermined; subverted.

SAP'PER, n.

One who saps. In an army, sappers and miners are employed in working at saps, to protect soldiers in their approach to a besieged place, or to undermine the works.

SAP'PHIC, a. [saf'ic.]

Pertaining to Sappho, a Grecian poetess; as, Sapphic odes; Sapphiv verse. The Sapphic verse consists of eleven syllables in five feet, of which the first, fourth and fifth are trochees, the second a spondee, and the third a dactyl, in the first three lines of each stanza, with a fourth consisting only of a dactyl and a spondee.

SAP'PHIRE, n. [L. sapphirus; Gr. σαπφειρος; from the Ar. سَفَرَ safara, to scrape, to shine, to be fair, open, beautiful; Ch. Syr. and Sam, to scrape, to shave.]

A species of silicious gems or minerals, of several varieties. In hardness it is inferior to the diamond only. Its colors are blue, red, violet, yellow, green, white, or limpid, and one variety is chatoyant, and another asteriated or radiated. Cleaveland. Sapphire is a subspecies of rhomboidial corundum. Ure. Jameson. The oriental ruby and topaz are sapphires. Ure. Sapphire is employed in jewelry and the arts.